Nap of the Day: Madara can embarrass the handicapper again at Aintree

We are being treated to some excellent racing this week with the Aintree Festival taking place and Friday marks Day Two of the spring spectacular. There are also another five meetings taking place across Britain and Ireland and it should be a compelling day.

Aintree is the first meeting to kick off in the afternoon and the action continues at Sedgefield and Thirsk. Wexford hosts a twilight fixture and the evening entertainment is provided by all-weather cards from Wolverhampton and Dundalk. There's one runner in particular who catches the eye and the horse in question could be set to land another big prize for Dan Skelton in the Topham Chase at Aintree. Below is my Nap of the Day for Friday, April 10.

16:05 Aintree Odds

Betfred are offering six places instead of the usual four in the Topham Chase, so there are plenty of each-way opportunities to be found for those betting at bigger prices. That being said, it's very hard to look past the market leader MADARA on this occasion.

This race has a £150k total prize pot and the substantial first place prize can go the way of Dan Skelton, as many of Britain's biggest races have this season. He has managed to surpass the £4m mark this season, which is a new record.

Madara managed to win three times over hurdles and fences in France for David Cottin and eventually made his way to Sophie Leech, where he won valuable handicap chases at Cheltenham and at the Dublin Racing Festival a couple of seasons ago.

Finishing fourth and second in the Paddy Power and December Gold Cups at Cheltenham on his first two starts for Skelton, he was then off the track for over a year.

Connections weren't exactly subtle about how they prepared him for the Sun Racing Plate at this year's Cheltenham Festival. He was a no-show over 1m7f at Wetherby in December and could have finished much closer to the winner at Kempton with a more vigorous ride.

The plan worked perfectly and he made the handicapper look stupid at Cheltenham. The seven-year-old came into it as the race developed, making smooth headway, and he kicked clear on the run-in to score by more than seven lengths.

It's noted that the handicapper has responded with a 10lb rise, but realistically, he had more in hand than that at Cheltenham last time.

There's a good chance that the handicapper will be left with egg on their face once again and Madara should still have something in hand.

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